A fascinating document from 1929 unveils the political efforts of Judah L. Magnes, then president of the Hebrew University, who wished to achieve an immediate political arrangement between the Jewish Yeshuv and the Palestinian Arabs. It was an attempt to conduct independent negotiations with the Arabs on his own accord.

While the history of Zionism in America is well documented, the history of non-Zionist activities in America is less well known. An Ambiguous Partnership now tells that story. Dr. Menahem Kaufman gives a detailed account of how American public figures and Jewish organizations, self-defined as non-Zionists, were influenced by changing attitudes in American society and government towards the Zionist struggle and by the problem of Holocaust survivors in Europe. This study describes the non-Zionists involvement in the political processes in Washington and the United Nations, which eventually brought about the establishment of the State of Israel.

The author's study describes the struggle to determine the status of Jerusalem from the time when the subject came up on the agenda of the United Nations Organization, and the course of the US policy on this issue. He traces the steps of the political development and examines the manifold factors which influenced the resurgence of the internationalization proposal, and the ways and means of determining the status of the city through measures adopted by the Special Committee of the United Nations Organization. There follows an analysis of the breakdowns in the adaptation of the internationalization plan during the special session of the General Assembly in 1948. The discussions were not brought to a conclusion and the project was allowed to lapse. The author has made good use of the official documentation and a variety of other sources, which not only help to fill the missing details, but also enlarge and deepen our knowledge of the background, explaining the different and particular interests of those concerned with the problems of Jerusalem from different standpoints – religious, national, political and social.